86 days until Christmas 2026

About Christmas

Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus and is one of the most important feasts of the Christian year. The Bible gives no date for the birth, and it was not widely celebrated in the church's first centuries. By the fourth century the church in Rome marked it on December 25, and that date spread across the Western church. Many Orthodox churches that follow the older Julian calendar celebrate on January 7 instead.

The date never moves: Christmas Day is December 25 every year. Congress made it a federal holiday in 1870. When December 25 falls on a Saturday, federal employees get Friday, December 24 off; when it falls on a Sunday, they get Monday, December 26.

Many American Christmas customs arrived with immigrants and took shape in the 1800s. German settlers helped popularize the decorated Christmas tree, and Santa Claus is often traced to the Dutch Sinterklaas, a figure based on St. Nicholas. The 1823 poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" and Thomas Nast's magazine drawings shaped the modern image of Santa, with his sleigh and reindeer. Today, typical traditions include exchanging gifts, hanging stockings, putting up lights, sending cards, baking cookies, sharing a family meal and attending church services, including late-night services on Christmas Eve.

How we check dates and facts: see our sources.

Christmas by year